GuitarCapo+ update – versatile app for guitar players from Tonapp As gets iOS8 support and more

I did a full review of the iOS music app GuitarCapo+ from developer Tonapp As back in June here on the Music App Blog. As I pointed out then, GuitarCapo+ is part virtual instrument and part learning tool/chord utility for guitar players. In particular, in the latter context, it makes working out chord shapes when you want to play a song with a capo in place on your real (you know, that thing with strings on it that you can strum) guitar a breeze and, for the theoretically challenged (that’s me then) makes finding the right chord much easier.

And, as with so many other iOS music apps at present, GuitarCapo+ has been updated to provide support for iOS8; v.2.8 arrived on the App Store earlier today. The app now has the latest Audiobus SDK on board and so ought to sit quite happily on any iOS device running iOS8 (the app is universal).

GuitarCapo+; now with iOS8 support and a new MIDI performance mode.

However, that’s not all Jon-Morten Stenvik has introduced in this release. For example, you can now adjust the strum speed and strum up or down on the chord displays. In addition, there are sustain and mute buttons available and these controls are available at the base of the screen. These changes mean that the on-screen playability of the app is improved if you wish to use it in the role of virtual instrument.

There is also an online manual now available and that you can access directly from within the app (most welcome) and, if you wish, you can rotate the chord buttons to suit your preferred orientation while playing.

The MIDI settings dialog allows you to send GuitarCapo+’s output to any other iOS MIDI app you have running.

However, iOS8 support aside, perhaps the highlight new feature is MIDI out support. This means that GuitarCapo+ now has a third string to its bow (doh! sorry!) as, alongside being used as a virtual instrument or chord/capo reference tool, it can now also serve as a MIDI performance app. I whiled away a quick half an hour routing MIDI data out to a few of my favourite iOS synth apps and into Cubasis; it’s a lot of fun… GuitarCapo+ includes MIDI settings dialog and I had no problems sending or recording the resulting MIDI data.

Given that you can set the strum speed, combined with the MIDI out, it does make GauitarCapo+ a rather good way of either trigger full chords (at the fastest strum speed) or triggering arpeggios based on the current chord. Set a fairly fast strum speed and tap away using a combination of up and down strums and you can get some pretty fancy playing out of the app with a suitable synth patch (or, indeed, the internal guitar sounds).

I had no problems getting MIDI data from GuitarCapo+ into other apps or, as shown here, recording it within Cubasis.

This did get me thinking (not always a good thing!)…. As a guitar player, I love the guitar-centric format of GuitarCapo+. If, once you had selected your chord set, if you could toggle on a second set of trigger buttons (to sit beside the six chord windows in the main display) but where each trigger button played a different fingerpicking pattern (rather than just a basic strum), this would open up all sorts of additional MIDI performance options. And if you could dig in and create your own picking patterns or add a bit of timing swing to them, that would be even better…. To have a MIDI controller that played arpeggios in a guitar-based (fingerpicking) format would be very useful. Just wishful thinking on my part but I’m sure other guitar players would like this idea…. any chance Jon-Morten? :-)

It’s great to see GuitarCapo+ developing further. It was already avery useful tool for the iOS guitar player but the new MIDI performance aspect will broaden that appeal considerably. If you haven’t given the app a try yet then, for the next few days, it is available for UK£2.99 to celebrate the update. Catch it at this price while you can….